Black Smoke

Boothbay Harbor, N 43 50.821 W 69 38.105

Uh oh. Tarwathie's stern surrounding the exhaust is covered with black soot. When we run the engine, traces of fuel come out the exhaust and go into the water. We're polluters!

A study of the troubleshooting guides says that the likely problem is one or more bad injectors. We have spare injectors onboard. However when I study the instructions in the book and look at the tools I have, I'm doubtful of my ability to change them successfully. Because we keep our freezer full of food we're dependent on running the engine every day to keep the battery charged. The solar panel does the job almost, but not entirely. Two solar panels might be enough.

I went in to the Boothbay library today. They have free WiFi. It's very friendly, they have a table with a plug strip and otherwise bare. There were six other people sitting around the table with their laptops when I was there. The library needed only two regular PCs for non WiFi customers. It's a good tradeoff for the library. Only 26% of all libraries have WiFi, but they all should. Anyhow, I posted a bunch of pictures.

I talked with ICOM, the SSB manufacturer. When I described the lightning hit and the symptoms, the ICOM man said, "Yep. It's fried. No use trying to repair it." I also talkes with the Furuno radar technician. There's a better chance there to get it repaired rather than replaced. Trouble is to find a vendor to do the diagnostic work and to install whatever new equipment we get. The insurance company seems relaxed. The man said that it was a minor strike compared to what he's used to. They'll write a check for the total when it's done minus my two thousand dollar deductable (OUCH!)

THU morning

This morning we're waiting for a diesel mechanic to return our call. If we can't find one here we'll try at the next port of call. While waiting we did engine maintenance, and oil change, and a new secondary oil filtere. I find that the transmission fluid levels and the lube oil levels have been constant for some time. Good, we're no longer leaking either oil or fluid, but we are leaking some fuel and salt water into the engine compartment.

We hate changing the secondary fuel filter. It's a devil to get out and in, and if it's not in perfectly, it leaks fuel rapidly. With both Libby and I working at it and with a couple of hours fiddling and three attempts, we finally got it right. Fortunately that job only needs to be done once every 500 engine hours.

Last night a catamaran came and anchored near us with a couple and two small kids. The were too near I thought. A while later he was nearer still, so I hailed the captain and asked how much scope he had out for his anchor. He said, "60 feet of chain." "60 feet!" I thought. That's not nearly enough. The water here is 35 feet deep at high tide. One needs 4:1 scope minimum and 5:1 when it might be windy. I resisted calling him an idiot, but I did point out that I had 140 feet out and that our two boats would not swing in coordination but rather swing in intersecting circles and collide. I suggested more scope. The captain said, "OK let me see what I have." I couldn't believe it. Sixty feet was all he had. Catamarans are used to anchoring in three feet or less depth. The captain was from Colorado and he was ill equipped for New England. He didn't have the training (knowing that 2:1 scope is pitifully inadequate), nor did he have the equipment to anchor in a place like this. He looked for another line to try to add to his chain but before he found one a big thunderstorm suddently came upon us.

The wind howled and I was worried that Tarwathie was coming too close to a power boat in the mooring field. Then I looked out and saw the catamaran only one foot away! They had dragged more than 100 feet in less than 5 minutes. We both ran out into the storm and started our engines to make an emergency maneuver if needed. The catamaran skipper raised his anchor and eventually he motored away without a collision. That's the good news. The bad news is that after the storm he came back and anchored too close to me again and tonight there are more severe thunderstorms possible. Oy vey. Must it always be inappropriate to scream at the guy saying, "You blanking idiot. Get the blank away from us?"

At the Entrance to Boothbay Harbor